{"id":750,"date":"2010-07-20T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-20T11:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=750"},"modified":"2010-07-20T11:06:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-20T11:06:00","slug":"larry-kimmel-writes-an-elegy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/larry-kimmel-writes-an-elegy\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Kimmel writes an elegy"},"content":{"rendered":"

October Elegy <\/span>


After the burial she walked with me,<\/span>
Where tall trees, standing in a clear<\/span>
Sunlight, cast strict shadows across<\/span>
The drive \u2013 a woman just past fifty,<\/span>
Elegant and gracious, lovely to see.<\/span>

“You came all the way from Maine, they say.<\/span>
You must have been very fond of Kurt,”<\/span>
Meaning her brother, my uncle by marriage,<\/span>
               and that was true.<\/span>

A far hill seemed the reds and golds<\/span>
Of an old tapestry kicked against<\/span>
The horizon, while the branches near<\/span>
At hand were clad in tatters, and one<\/span>
Old oak in rags of penny-brown.<\/span>

“You were just a boy when I left home.”<\/span>

That, too, was true, and true still,<\/span>
The infatuation a boy once felt<\/span>
For her \u2013 though now as mellow as<\/span>
A bronze medallion smoothed by the wear<\/span>
               of a quarter century.<\/span>

She took my arm, her white-gloved hand<\/span>
Around my sleeve, and we walked awhile<\/span>
In silence.  Her step was steady, stately,<\/span>
Despite the cant of her narrow heels<\/span>
On the cinder drive.  And leaving the drive<\/span>
We crossed a quilt of yellow leaves,<\/span>
Dimly reflected in the branches<\/span>
Overhead, and I was made<\/span>
Momentarily giddy by<\/span>
               the lightness of its color.<\/span>

And as we joined the others, she let<\/span>
Go of my arm, saying, “I must<\/span>
See Joan before I leave,” meaning<\/span>
My aunt, her sister-in-law, and smiling<\/span>
A smile of October charm she left me.<\/span>

All that was eighteen years ago,<\/span>
And now I am her age then, and now<\/span>
I do not think that I shall ever<\/span>
See her again, and that, I allow,<\/span>
Is as it should be, now as the reds<\/span>
And golds of old tapestry<\/span>
Return, once more, to distant hills \u2013<\/span>
               the same but not the same.<\/span>



<\/font>* Larry Kimmel<\/span> is a US poet of both
\nhaikai and mainline forms. His most recent books are this hunger, tissue-thing<\/span> and Blue Night & the inadequacy of
\nlong-stemmed roses<\/span>. (Modern English Tanka Press).<\/font>
<\/font>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October Elegy After the burial she walked with me,Where tall trees, standing in a clearSunlight, cast strict shadows acrossThe drive \u2013 a woman just past fifty,Elegant and gracious, lovely to see.“You came all the way from Maine, they say.You must have been very fond of Kurt,”Meaning her brother, my uncle by marriage,               and that was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}